City residents and business owners stand to gain from a well-executed Comprehensive Plan. This is especially true if they become active in the process and share their thoughts and ideas. The City is committed to an open process where anyone who cares about the future of Greenville has a chance to contribute. Ultimately, the Comprehensive Plan is intended to deliver greater prosperity and quality of life to all segments of the community. By getting involved, you can help shape the vision and policies that make this happen.

The City of Greenville is embarking on a planning process to develop a new Comprehensive Plan to determine the course of the next 20 years. This process, called Greenville 2040, will enable the community to help shape the vision and make recommendations through ongoing engagement opportunities. When completed, the new Comprehensive Plan will help guide decision-making in Greenville for years to come.

A comprehensive plan is a long-term guide for the future physical development of a city that considers the input of citizens, businesses and other stakeholders. It includes recommendations for future land use, community facilities, connectivity, open space and recreation areas, cultural and natural resources and economic development. It includes a vision, an aspirational statement about the future condition of the City; goals, desired outcomes for each of the plan topics that are expressed simply and actions to achieve the goals.

In general, planning demonstrates good stewardship. Change – good or bad – happens whether we are ready or not. Greenville is located within one of the most rapidly growing areas of the country and the metro area is the fastest growing area in the state. The previous plan was adopted in 2009 and now almost 10 years later, most of that plan has been implemented. It is time to reflect and take stock of the existing conditions and trends facing the community along with the community’s ideas and input to create a plan that will guide for long-term preservation, revitalization and growth so that the City can achieve the goals and aspirations.

The Comprehensive Plan is just that – comprehensive. Topics range from land use and transportation to economic development and parks. Each topic will include a thorough evaluation of the City’s current conditions and most important trends. The community will be asked for input through in-person and online engagement activities. Finally, recommendations will emerge in each topic that meld the technical analysis with the intuition of the public. Topics in the Greenville 2040 Comprehensive Plan include population, economic development, natural resources, cultural resources, community facilities, housing, land use, transportation and priority investment.

City residents and business owners stand to gain from a well-executed Comprehensive Plan. This is especially true if they become active in the process and share their thoughts and ideas. The City is committed to an open process where anyone who cares about the future of Greenville has a chance to contribute. Ultimately, the Comprehensive Plan is intended to deliver greater prosperity and quality of life to all segments of the community. By getting involved, you can help shape the vision and policies that make this happen.

The process is being guided by a 38-member Steering Committee of citizens who were selected from a pool of 228 applicants through a rigorous process to ensure that the committee represents the diverse interests in the city. The group will meet regularly throughout the process to plan outreach activities, discuss technical analysis and give input on the direction of the plan. The process will be overseen by the City’s Planning & Development Division staff in collaboration with a consulting team led by Planning NEXT of Columbus, Ohio. The team includes local and national partners with years of experience in crafting plans for communities like Greenville.

There will be many opportunities to contribute your ideas to the Greenville 2040 process. Whether at a workshop, in a small focus group or through the online public input tool, everyone is invited to contribute their thoughts and ideas. Meetings will be announced well in advance through traditional media, social media and the City’s website.

Absolutely not! By living, working or raising a family in Greenville, you know so much about this community. Your intuition is vital to the plan’s success. Whether you’re a lifelong resident or just moved to the community, your perspective is important.

When you contribute an idea to Greenville 2040, you are contributing directly to the Comprehensive Plan. Depending on when you get involved, your ideas could serve as the foundation for the community’s vision statement, contribute to one of the plan’s goals, inspire a specific action (like a new project, policy or program) or set the course for implementation. Each comment will be recorded, databased, categorized and analyzed by the planning team. This process will be documented in summary memos after each round of public engagement.

There are several different planning processes going on in the city and region concurrently. The Downtown Strategic Master Plan process kicked-off in June of 2018 and is a six-month process focused on the downtown area only. Greenville County is also undertaking a comprehensive planning process, which the Greenville 2040 planning team will be mindful of and will coordinate with as appropriate. Another plan in process is the Wade Hampton Corridor master plan, which will conclude at the end of the year. The City also just completed an update to the Historic Resources Survey.

www.gvl2040.com is the website for the Comprehensive Plan and includes more information about the process and how you can get involved. Share your email under “Stay Informed” and we’ll keep you updated on upcoming meetings and major announcements.